


Alive (plotline version)

by Oxijin4Rose



Series: Rose's fic plot dump [1]
Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: Blood, Homophobia, M/M, Mages, Minor Character Death, More like: slow acting on reciprocated feelings, Probably Historically Inaccurate, Revenge, Slightly underage (as in one kiss), Slow Burn, Werewolf Courting, Werewolves, mentioned sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-23
Updated: 2020-10-23
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:06:53
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,126
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27165652
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Oxijin4Rose/pseuds/Oxijin4Rose
Summary: Felix grows up in a tiny village in the woods, raised by his single father. Life is boring in a traditional lumberjack’s village, far away from the rest of society. But life has a knack of becoming hard first, before calming down. Who knew yellow eyes could feel so warm?---This is the PLOTLINE version of this fic. I may want to write this out properly at some date, but for now it will see the light of day in this format.
Relationships: Bang Chan/Lee Felix, Han Jisung | Han/Lee Minho | Lee Know
Series: Rose's fic plot dump [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1982923
Comments: 5
Kudos: 48





	Alive (plotline version)

**Author's Note:**

> Hi!  
> Uhh yeah so I'm an awkward mess but this is the plotline to a fic I'm really really REALLY proud of but haven't written fully in the way I like to write, so I decided to post it anyway. It is not my writing style at allllll, so I'm really nervous but maybe this will pressure me into sitting my ass down and actually writing it. One day, I will. I can only hope that day is near.  
> \---  
> As said before, this is the PLOTLINE version. I have decided to post it (1) because I love it and it needed some appreciation and (2) I know that I take inspiration from other works, so I wanted to put this out there for others as well. That being said, I do NOT consent to somebody seeing this as a very written out 'prompt' and writing it as if it's their own story. Taking inspiration is always okay, just don't copy my storyline.

Felix grows up in a tiny village in the woods, raised by his single father. Life is boring in a traditional lumberjack’s village, far away from the rest of society. When he is 16, not being interested in females is apparently synonymous with being gay. Well, they aren’t exactly wrong there, but the throwing him out part is a bit overboard if you ask him.

When they threw him out, all the mean slurs he had faced his entire life already reached new peaks. Fag. Whore. Cumrag. Promises of getting his genitals chewed off by wolves were followed up easily by jabs at his father’s expense were the final drop. Felix saw red. In his fit of anger, he promised to “return leading the pack” before stomping off into the woods.

Within an hour he was terrified and crying, every little noise scared him, and he realised that he had zero skills to survive the night with wolves actually roaming the woods. He stumbled upon a creek, sparkling in the soft spring light, and sunk down on one of the big boulders alongside it, bawling his eyes out. He gets the jump scare of his life when suddenly a voice says that it isn’t smart to let ones guard down near water, he jolts upright and sees a very handsome young man dressed in light brown robes calmly collect water in two wooden buckets.

When the man notices Felix has stopped crying, he looks him up and down, and promptly asks him to come help him carry the buckets back. Felix accepts, but only because he feels so lost that he doesn’t really take a moment to consider the alternative. When he asks for the man’s name, he only gets a grin in response.

Soon enough they come upon what seems like a small clearing, but really is a circular patch of forest where there is no soil growth, and the leaves on the trees are much higher than of the other trees. When Felix looks up, he sees a system of huts and wooden walkways draping itself high in the air across the branches. He doesn’t realise his mouth has dropped open until the man tells him to snap out of it and hand him the bucket. He attaches the bucket to a rope system and hinges it up to the top. Then he turns to Felix again and regards him for a second, then demands he tells him his name. Felix at first refuses, proclaims that he asked first! But then the man’s stare turns cold and mean and he quickly stutters out a mellow “Felix” before looking to his feet.

A few moments of silence are followed up by a soft voice telling him the man’s name is Minho, and that if he needs a home to stay, he is welcome to follow. Felix barely looks up in time to see the man- Minho, climbing the tree at breakneck speed with little to no branches helping him out. When he reaches the top, he looks down at Felix expectantly, and when Felix admits he doesn’t really know how to follow him he laughs.

Felix feels just slightly belittled, but the sound doesn’t seem mean like the haunting laughs of the villagers earlier in the day when they kicked him out, so he decides to give Minho the favour of the doubt. His worst flaw had always been being too favourable to strangers.

When night falls, Felix has realised a few things.

One, his hands were not made for climbing. If he is to stay here, he will certainly need to work on his arm muscles (or convince Minho to add a rope ladder).

Two, Minho is a mysterious being. He hasn’t learned more about him other than his name, and the fact that he lives in these huts. It can’t be that he lives here alone, there are way too many huts that all seem too well kept to be just for one person.

Three, the stories about wolves were definitely true, if the howling that makes the hair on his arms stand up straight just below his hut is anything to go by. When he chances a glance out of the square hole in the wall that serves as a window, he meets the striking gaze of two yellow eyes.

Another howl rips through the night.

\---

When Felix wakes from a very fitful sleep in the morning, he spots Minho down in the clearing, scraping his knife along a thin stick. Once he has definitely NOT stumbled down the last few inches to the ground, Minho informs him that stick will become Felix’ bow. It freaks him out just a tiny bit, as he has never wielded a weapon before, but Minho insists. And, seeing as Felix already has a too deep trust of the man he met not even a day earlier, he accepts.

Later, when he is laying on the ground, panting from exertion from practising all day, Minho asks him why he trusts him so much. He asks it in an unsure voice, something lighter than Felix has heard him use before. To Felix, it indicates that Minho truly doesn’t understand why somebody would trust him and it makes him feel a bit sad.

The truth, apparently, makes Minho sad. Small tears roll down his cheeks as Felix tells him of how he got bullied his entire life for not having a mother, and then being kicked out once they realised he wasn’t going to become a buff lumberjack that took on many women. Tells him of his fear of being alone in the wild, and how being with Minho is already infinitely better than dying to a set of wolf teeth. That last comment makes Minho give a wet snort, but when asked he brushes it off.

The second night, Felix swears he hears a set of claws scratching the trees. About an hour later, as he hears something similar to a howl but definitely more human than animal, and looks across to the open doorway to Minho’s chambers, he sees Minho kissing a boy who is bouncing up and dow- and then he quickly looks away, straight into the same striking yellow eyes from the night before. That night he barely gets any sleep either.

\---

When Minho comments on his eyebags in the morning, he can’t help but blurt out “I saw you last night”. It shuts him up for a second, before he sighs and tells him he would’ve found out eventually. A low whistle, and only seconds later a pack of wolves come trotting out of the bushes. Felix feels his body go as taut, as stiff his dick was supposed to be from women, from a mix of terror and fear – there is six of them against two humans – but one just walks up to Minho and drops its head in his lap. To his utmost bewilderment, Minho doesn’t even bat an eye before scratching the animal under its chin. The other five wolves lie themselves down at a respectable distance from them.

“This is Jisung,” Minho suddenly informs him while gesturing down to the wolf in his lap, “You saw him with me yesterday.”

Felix feels lost for a short beat until he realises, these are not wolves. This, casually lying around him, is a full pack of werewolves, and Minho is part of the pack. Or at least involved with them, sexually, nonetheless. Minho notices him starting to hyperventilate a bit, and looks at him in something akin to pity. “I freaked out the first time too, but don’t worry, they won’t hurt you. If they hurt you, they know I will hurt them more, ay?” the last part teasingly being directed to the wolf, Jisung, as he rubs his belly quite roughly. The wolf gives a happy hum.

Movement from his left peripheral startles him, and he looks over to see one wolf practically crawling over the ground towards him. He scoots away automatically, at which the wolf whines softly. Minho tells him that is Hyunjin, and he loves cuddles more than anything. Advises him to pet on the top of his head between his ears. When Felix still seems understandably wary, he informs him that what Hyunjin’s body language is saying is that he feels subordinate to Felix. It startles him far more than the presence of the wolf did, but when he looks over at the wolf again and makes eye contact with what can only be described as puppy eyes, he gains enough confidence to put his hand on top of his head.

The noise Hyunjin makes can only be described as elated, but the grumbling noise another wolf to his right makes can only be described as threatening. When Minho snaps, “Chan! Down boy!” Felix finally realises properly the role Minho takes in the pack. Equal, but with a dominating edge. They listen to Minho. Minho has complete control. Somehow, that is enough to make him feel comfortable enough to take a normal breath again.

Felix looks over to the growling wolf, Chan, and stretches out his hand in a peace offering. It only takes a few seconds and two curious glances between his face and his hand, before the wolf stands up at full height to walk forward and lick his hand. He didn’t need Minho’s information to conclude that this wolf definitely does not feel subordinate to him.

Minho allows him a few more moments of rest – as much as one can rest when having a hand near those teeth – before standing up and declaring it time to start practising his archery skills. When Felix complains of not even having had breakfast, the glint in Minho’s eyes tell him enough. He will have to scavenge his own breakfast today.

In the end he goes without breakfast, but he does manage to help an older swine out of his misery from a bad leg wound, and thus provide both lunch and dinner. He pretends it doesn’t disgust him when the wolves eat the meat raw.

\---

Minho is a harsh but fair mentor in the ways of the wilderness. Wake at dawn, practise archery, hunt, save one part of the bounty for breakfast the following day, repeat. The routine continues and before he knows it, a week has passed since he was cast out from the village. When he wakes another night to the sound of Minho and Jisung going at it, he decides a proper meeting is in order. Felix has long since figured out that the other huts belong to the pack of werewolves, and he knows they can live in their human form (thanks for that image, Jisung). When he confronts Minho about it, the older boy readily agrees. It would seem he has had enough of only seeing his lover in human skin during the night.

Even though he was the one that initiated it, it still came as somewhat of a shock to Felix’ system when he saw the pack in their human forms. For one, they were all a lot more handsome than he expected. They also seemed a lot more innocent than their animal forms, which might have something to do with Felix’ remaining fear of wolves.

Hyunjin was indeed addicted to cuddles. Tall, goofy, floppy puppy is the best way to describe him, even as a human. Soft, brown locks frame his face, and his eyes sparkle with every small giggle that falls from his lips. Jeongin and Seungmin were wary of skinship at first, but were really too much like overexcited puppies once they warmed up to him. Jisung was almost cocky in his confidence, but only had eyes for Minho. He followed him around like a lost puppy. Changbin and Chan were more cautious around him, behaving almost like a mistreated dog, fearful of humans. There really were too many dog comparisons for the pack of wolves.

Chan is clearly the leader, the pack’s lead Alpha as Jisung so happily informs him. Yet he yields to Minho’s every wish without too much complaint. It confuses Felix, why somebody would give up their given power so readily, but Chan makes it seem so natural. Makes it seem like a free choice. Somehow, Felix believes that.

But, even with all their distant behaviour, Changbin and Chan are the first ones to jump to his defence when he lowers his guard on the hunt once, and gets knocked over by an angry doe. It didn’t hurt him, probably only ever meant to scare him into dropping the attack, but they reacted as if the animal had fatally injured him. Their wild eyes as they fretted over Felix made him feel both scared and secure at the same time.

While Changbin readily gives up the protective act once it becomes clear that Felix is only spooked, Chan continues to dote on him for the entire day. Wipes his tears with the back of his hand carefully, massages his thighs when they keep shaking, stares down Minho when he insists Felix should get used to it and continue the hunt.

For the record, Chan wins that staredown only because Jisung bribed Minho with neck kisses.

Later that same day, Chan insists he take a bath at the creek. “You still smell of fear, and I don’t like it,” he’d whined, “If it makes you feel any better, I’ll bathe too”. At first it seems like a good idea, until he realises upon reaching the creek that bathing means stripping. Not only him, but Chan too. And while there is no feeling there, Felix did get kicked out for his attraction to men. That hasn’t stopped. And objectively, Chan is a very handsome male. Purely objectively of course.

Washing does make him feel human again, in a way. However, humans blush. And the blush makes his freckles stand out. Felix has always hated his freckles. Made him seem more feminine, which wasn’t exactly the best feature in a lumberjack’s village. But maybe, he thinks, the way Chan’s mouth drops open at the sight, and the way his thumb caresses his cheekbone in wonder before turning and awkwardly stumbling away, will make him learn to love his freckles.

Since revealing their human forms, the entire pack have taken up their old residence in the huts again at night. Felix however never finds his bed empty, there is always somebody pouting at him for cuddles. Today, its Jeongin that he finds rolling around. Whispered in the dead of the night, he is informed what bathing means to an Alpha. Washing away of one’s scent, to install a new one. Trust, an underlying sense of family. Markings of the beginning of courtship, an interest in another being.

That night, Felix can only listen to the soft puffs of the younger’s breath as he reanalyses his every move.

\---

Life at Minho’s clearing is both the most interesting thing that has happened to him – Minho is something of a witch, or at the very least a druid, cooking up concoctions of all sorts to help plants grow – and the most mundane form of living to ever exist. Minho is tireless in his ever-present insistence of routine. Proclaims one would go insane without it. Just before winter hits, the first break from the routine is jarring enough for Felix that he is inclined to believe him.

Instead of hunting, Minho and Chan task all of them to load a carriage (where did that come from?) spanned with two oxen (where did they come from as well?) with all the hides of the hunt from the past year. Felix half expects them to continue with a hunt after lunch, but instead the pack laze around in their wolfskins while Minho walks around dragging all sorts of ingredients to a large cauldron at the centre of the clearing. Felix is quick to accept a moment of rest and joins the pack in the last rays of the autumn sun, leaning his head on Chan’s thigh.

Minho’s work on the concoction continues well after sunset this time around, to the surprise and interest of Felix. By the time he is done, Felix is amazed to find that its volume is no more than a large pint. Regarding the amount of ingredients that went into it, that alone is nothing short of magic. The colour of the broth is a translucent white, but the steam rising up from the cup is purple. When Minho hands Chan the cup, he doesn’t even hesitate before downing it in one big gulp. His face pulls into a funny grimace afterwards, loudly insulting Minho for “not adding at least a bit of flavour, not even after all these years,”.

All his questions regarding the use for the drink, or how long they have been doing this, are swiftly dodged. Chan leaves with the carriage just before midnight. Nobody sleeps in Felix’ arms that night.

Two days later, he returns. The carriage is now loaded with all kinds of spices, a stray plant, and a lot of planks. With a jolt, Felix realises Chan went to his old village to trade the hides. When he voices his feelings of betrayal, he gets a soft but guilty smile in return. He gets told that his father stopped cutting down trees. He now keeps up with Felix’ old garden, selling the crops to at least make a living. Then, when Chan realises this does nothing to ease the drop of Felix’ gut, he grabs his hand and carefully lies a necklace with a wooden hanger depicting a moon in his palm. Tells him that since Chan returned to the village once again, it is now Felix’ 17th birthday.

Felix throws the necklace to the ground and stomps off to his hut without looking back.

\---

Surprisingly, it’s Seungmin who comes to find him first. He doesn’t ask questions, just holds Felix as he sobs over how he thought he could trust them, how he thought they were disconnected from his past, how they were a new start. But apparently not. That they are just all the same. Nobody loves him. Okay so maybe Seungmin does interrupt there, to kiss his forehead and tell him that that’s not true. But for the most part he stays silent. And Felix is grateful.

But he would also like some answers, please.

So eventually, they make their way over to Minho’s hut. It strikes Felix only as he walks in that this is actually his first time seeing the inside of Minho’s hut. The walls are littered with spices, flowers, and other questionable ingredients. The cauldron used earlier is in the corner of the room, next to a kitchenette looking area with utensils Felix has never seen in his life. There is a bookcase on the wall above Minho’s bed, filled with ancient looking books. They find the owner of the room in that very bed, looking nothing at all surprised at his visitors.

Before Minho even starts talking, the rest of the pack has arrived in the room. Felix refuses to lift his head out of Seungmin’s shoulder to look at them. Or more specifically at one person. His intention lasts all of five seconds when Chan blurts out: “I was there for your birth,”. Felix is sure his eyes actually popped out of their sockets. Minho only sighs disappointedly.

He tells Felix how he is a mage, born in the same village as Felix. Cast out at age 14 for his vast knowledge, his ability to explain things that the villagers were too uneducated for to understand. At this point Felix trades Seungmin’s arms for Minho’s, as he finally realises why the man was so sad when he took him in. He sits right back up again as Minho explains how at age 16, he discovered the spell to grant immortality.

“It was the stupidest decision of my life to do it right then and there, before I fully understood the effects the spell would give. I have learned so much since,” When Felix tells him he doesn’t look 16, he explains that the spell slowed his body’s cycle. For every year that Minho ages, one hundred pass for humans. “You would perceive me as 24 now,” It doesn’t take long for Felix to do the math. He looks around the room. The books seem much less ancient now, the dust less of a time stamp.

The tale continues on to Jisung, the first to arrive with Minho, when he stumbled into a bear trap while on his way to catch a prey. On how Minho had to turn him immortal right then and there, too, in order to gain time to heal his wounds. He gets explained that immortal does not mean deathless, it just slows the process down.

He gets explained that that is when Jisung started courting Minho. Minho tells him that he hasn’t accepted the mating yet, because why would he? They have all of eternity left together, if Jisung learns to stop being overconfident.

Minho continues on to explain how he met each wolf, all of them stumbling into his life a rough hundred years apart. Felix, as the eighth to their group, arrived eight hundred years after Minho became immortal. Eight hundred and two years after he was cast out from the village. A sudden realisation strikes him, folk talk about a young evil witch haunting the forest, a children’s tale to install fear and discipline, Lee Know. Minho laughs at that, and tells him that is the most absurd bastardization of his name he has ever heard.

In return, Felix tells the entire pack of his promise to return to the village one day, and return leading the pack. When they all smile at him and tell him that can be arranged, he bursts out in tears again. He makes sure they all understand exactly what he means. Not a nice, sweet, and innocent scare show. No. A revenge. A death sentence, dealt by the snapping of a wolf’s jaw. The cries of “feed him to the wolves” echo in the back of his mind. The smiles drop, nobody having expected their sunshine to be capable of such bloody thoughts. They still agree to help him. Tell him that they are, after all, wolves. Killing is not exactly a novelty to them anymore. Hyunjin makes him promise to not do it while his dad is still alive. Felix suspects there is a story in that, a sad and rueful story, but he does not press.

Later that night Felix will demand for Minho to make him immortal too. Minho reminds him that he is only 17, and that he himself knew how painful it was to spend the last days of his youth in eternity.

Minho does agree to turn him before he acts his revenge on the village.

Nobody takes it upon themselves to crawl into his bed. So, Felix seeks out Chan by himself. The jump in his muscles as he wraps his arms around broad shoulders tell him enough to know he wasn’t expected. It thus surprises him when Chan turns around and ever so carefully lies his hand on his waist. Without prompting, he tells Felix of how he has been going to the village every year on the same day for trading, how the drink he took before leaving masks his true identity so that the villagers think they have a new tradesman every year, how they might not remember him, but he remembers them.

He tells Felix of how one of the women in the village that has always treated him kindly, Sana, had given birth just before Chan entered the village. How she had asked her husband to come fetch the merchant, because she wanted to show off her perfect baby. “You smiled the second we made eye contact,” he tells him. He tells him how his friend, Felix’ mother had died during the night following the delivery from childbed fever.

“I didn’t know my mother died after giving birth to me… I always sort of assumed she had left, nobody ever spoke about her,” Felix admits. It pains him to hear about the sad story, although he cannot pinpoint if it’s because it’s about his mother, or because it is about Chan’s friend. Chan tells him that he vowed to always seek out the little child on his returns to the village, not only in the legacy of Sana, but also because he knew that that child would mean a lot to him. He also tells him how he felt he failed, when he saw Felix turn up at the clearing with Minho.

When Felix tries to lean in to prove just how much he did not fail, Chan slides his hand in between their lips. “As much as I was hinting at that, and as much as I want to, you are still incredibly younger than me,” he feels rejected for all of two seconds before the first part of the sentence registers in his brain. He must perk up in happiness, because Chan’s eyes are crinkling in laughter as he pulls him flush against his chest and whispers a promise of “one day” into his ear. The necklace he fishes from the bedside table and carefully hangs around Felix’ neck feels strangely like a claim.

\---

Nobody warned him that while he was not immortal (yet), living in the forest without knowing what to do felt like an eternity all on its own. Chan refused any and all acts of compassion, but was fiercely protective of him. Hyunjin called it possessive, but that was only because he lost his nightly cuddle buddy. Felix told him to go shove a stick up his ass and go cuddle Seungmin instead.

He spent three full days trying to get an inconsolable Hyunjin to like him again.

Hunting is much harder in winter, and soon they find themselves short on food. However, winter is also when Minho is truly in his element as mage, as the clearing somehow stays clear from snow, and the creek does not freeze over. Their diets have become startingly vegetarian, but tasteful anyway.

Minho teaches him some things, explains that he wasn’t born with magic shooting out of his fingertips. Teaches him that the vital difference between a wizard and a mage was knowledge; a wizard was born with it, but a mage gained it through hard work and education. It reminded Felix once again of Minho’s actual age. Before the winter is over, Felix is able to brew a drink that makes him feel as if his entire body is heated up to get them through the cold nights. It vaguely reminds him of the sips of soju he used to get as a child at big events.

If the slow of winter was a shock, the haste of spring completely knocks him off his feet. Falling back into the rhythm of hunting is easy, and he finds himself enjoying it more than he thought. Soon, autumn strikes once again. This time, Felix helps with conjuring up Chan’s mystery drink. When he comes to thank him for sneaking in at least a little bit of sugar, Felix forcefully reaches up and kisses him square on the mouth. Chan tells him that’s breaking the rules.

Breaking the rules feels so good though, when his present for his 18th birthday is a proper kiss upon Chan’s return. Felix rapidly decides courting is a tradition he will never understand. Chan seems incredibly happy taking things slow, slower than slow, and refuses to go further than kissing and some light-hearted rubbing for the entire year. Felix feels like crawling out of his own skin.

It is only on his 19th birthday that he indulges Felix in some proper contact. Or more like, can no longer stop Felix from getting what he wants. Hunting with bow and arrow pays off, and his muscles are more defined than he ever dreamed of them being, back when he still lived in the village. He has also steadily grown more confident in his own skin, Chan’s ever continuing adoration of things he perceived as flaws readily boosting his ego.

At some point between his 20th and 21st birthday, they take over the title of ‘loudest fuckers’ from Jisung and Minho, at least according to a grumbling Seungmin on a particular harsh morning-after. It is truly a testament of his feelings when he can only feel proud of it instead of embarrassed.

Chan seems to fall progressively in love with him, too, even when he thought the worship of his very existence couldn’t get much better. On multiple occasions Felix has to remind Chan that they are not in the privacy of his (their) room, the man’s jaw hanging slack and his drawers looking much tighter than they did in the morning. He always gets such a dopy smile on his face when Felix calls him out, especially after kissing the embarrassment off his face, that he isn’t entirely sure Chan isn’t doing it on purpose.

The night before Chan leaves for the village again, on his 21st birthday, he admits he no longer feels dirty when he looks at Felix like he wants to devour him. The implications have Felix giddy, finally feeling like their relationship might be evolving from whatever unspoken thing they have going now, to something official. As it is, Chan hasn’t even officially asked to court him. But Felix is okay with that. They will have eternity. And he isn’t all too sad about the absence of traditional wolf courting ‘presents’.

When Chan returns, all Felix wants to do is jump into his arms and kiss him senseless. However, he is met with a tight-lipped frown and a stiff posture. His questioning gaze is answered when the eyes he loves so much turn from determination to pity. “Felix, your father has passed.” A split-second of mourning passes through his body before the adrenaline jumps in. Hyunjin’s requirement has been met. His revenge can start.

\---

Minho was right about one thing, becoming immortal is nothing short of a painful process. It kind of feels like all the blood in his veins turn to lava, and the bones in his body crumble to ashes. It takes Minho just one minute to complete the spell, but the effects ripple through him for a good hour. At the end, he somehow feels both stronger and weaker at the same time.

Planning through the plan of action is much more painful on his mental capacity than he predicted, but he pushes through. Saying things out loud is speaking them into existence, he feels, and even though it is his idea to begin with, it feels awful to condemn children to death. But, as Changbin points out, the children will grow up to become the same monsters as the rest of the village. They have watched it happen for nearly a millennium now, and there has been no change.

They decide on using smoke bombs to pull a wall between the village and the forest. Minho guarantees him that it won’t take much of an effort to make them. It only soothes his conscience a bit. Jeongin offers to go find his old pack again, real wolves this time, and convince them to join the force. This is when Felix learns that the werewolves can actually communicate pretty decently while in their wolf form.

He isn’t sure if time flies because he is now immortal, or if the time seems to fly due to his nerves, but soon, way too soon, a week has passed and the pack has grown to a good 35 wolves by extension. Minho has sown him a hood, to mask his entrance into the village. The night before, Felix doesn’t sleep.

It feels awfully reminiscent of his first nights at the clearing, the sounds of wolves underneath his window keeping him up, as well as Minho and Jisung getting it on one last time, “just in case”. He twiddles with his necklace.

At sunrise, they set out. They have loaded some hides onto the carriage, and Chan will steer them into the village. Just before it comes into sight, he leans over and kisses Felix. Promises to keep him safe. Promises that he will still love him after the deed has been done. Promises that the world will go on, even into eternity.

Stepping off the carriage with the hood pulled far over his head, something ugly yet confident rears its head inside of his stomach. He can already feel a smirk pull at his lips, while Chan parades him around on his arm and dodges questions on why the tradesman is back so quickly. When somebody, with a shudder he vaguely recognizes the voice to belong to one of his childhood crushes, gets enough of the act and pulls his hood off, the gasp that runs through the gathered crowd is loud.

Immediately, voices from all sides try to grab his attention. Some going for cursing him out, others going for Chan, but the one that stands out to him is the one that says nothing. The town’s pride and joy, a young male in his mid-twenties, set to lead the town into prosperous times. The one to cast the vote to outcast Felix. As he walks up to the slack-jawed male, Felix feels powerful. “Hey there…. Remember what you said, some 5 odd years ago? I’ll help you, it was something along the lines of throwing me to the wolves,” He unsheathed his sword as he heard the distinct sound of a werewolf turning behind him, “I hope you remember what I said next. I told you I’d return leading the pack!”

He doesn’t know if the screams start from the edge of the village, where Minho’s smoke bombs have been activated and wolves seem to come from all sides, or from the centre of the village, where he has just ran his sword through the man’s heart. All he knows, is that the deep laugh rumbling out of his chest barely feels like his own.

He doesn’t remember much after that. He wakes up back at the clearing with his head cradled in Chan’s lap. He doesn’t ask questions once he meets the yellow yet human eyes, nor does he get answers. As he closes his eyes and goes in for a deep, meaningful kiss, he misses the single tear dripping down Chan’s cheek.

\---

The day after the revenge, Felix finds himself at the creek again, coincidentally in nearly the same spot he met Minho, to wash the blood stains from his and Minho’s clothes. He barely even noticed somebody joining him, if the snapping of twigs hadn’t given him away. “Do you regret it?” The question came rushed, almost too fast to interpret. Yet it was Chan that asked it, and Felix would always answer Chan. He looked up at the sky for a few solid moments, collecting his thoughts. These were not the type of questions to answer on instinct alone.

“You ask the wrong question. Do I mourn the innocent lives lost? Yes. Do I feel horrible about it, to the point of feeling ill to the stomach when I think about it? Yes, absolutely. Will it be a punishment I will have to live with for the rest of my life? Of course. But do I wish it did not happen? Do I beg to go back in time and change the course of action?”

A heavy sigh before tilting his head over to make eye contact, “No. I did what I promised to do the day they practically sentenced me to death. Yes, there were innocent people and no, what we did was not fair in the slightest. But what the people of that town did over the years, to both me, and Minho, and all other people who didn’t fit ‘the norm’, was not fair either. This is a wolf eat wolf world, you know?” The joke fell flat.

The corners of his mouth turned down as he repeated the question back at Chan, steadily holding eye contact. The answer shocked him, but perhaps it shouldn’t have.

“Yes. I have one regret,” A quick suck of breath inwards, nearly a gasp, almost unbelieving that the words were being spoken into reality, “You promised them to return leading the pack. But you didn’t. And that is my one big regret”

Before Felix had a chance to mull over the words, Chan stood up in a flash and ran back to the clearing. Cursing under his breath, quickly gathering the clothes he was washing, Felix ran after him. But by the time he entered the clearing, all he could see was the back of the carriage as Chan forced the oxen to stampede away. Minho sat leaning against a tree, staring at the retreating sight as well, before sighing out that he needed to explain Felix the concept of werewolf mates.

\---

“You are truly evil,” is the murmured comment spoken by a pouty Jisung as he and the rest of the pack crouch next to where Felix is watching the blood drip down into the creek from the oblique cut over his palm. The knife lay forgotten by his side. It makes Felix smile, finding it funny that the wolves perceive this as torture for them instead of for their Alpha.

Minho informed him that Chan would’ve gone downstream, to the south, the opposite direction from the village. While usually pheromones should be enough to get him to turn around, it seemed like the wind was not in Felix’ favour today and blew to the north. Call it desperate measures, but he would gladly cut open his own hand in order to lure Chan back to the settlement. He let the blood drip for a while longer, until the wound started to close on its own and the drip slowed. Minho didn’t even look disappointed when he asked him to help him treat the wound.

A few hours later, a long time after sunset, Felix was sat on the small windowsill and watched with a stuttering heart as a wolf, Chan, stormed into the clearing. The pale moonlight highlighted his striking features, the thick mane at the base of his neck, the sharp jaw, the soft tail. Once again, Felix was reminded of a puppy, and he felt giddy. The animal seemed to freeze once it caught a whiff of Felix’ – decidedly alive and healthy – scent hanging in the air. With a giggle, his as always strikingly yellow eyes snapping over to meet his in the window, Felix began to sing the song Chan has often sang to him when he had trouble sleeping:

_Hot like the sun_

_Wet like the rain_

_Green like the leaves_

_Life is a game_

_Stars in my head_

_Shine moon shine_

_Everything's cool_

_And I feel fine_

With a soft smile and a tiny ‘come hither’ motion, he turned away from the window to go sit on the bed. Mere moments later, he heard footsteps on the walkway outside his chambers. Chan didn’t seem to have a thing for theatrics, as there was no dramatic pause just before the corner. One moment he wasn’t there, and the next he was. Felix was greeted with the sight of a bare Chan, arms crossed over his chest, leaning against the doorframe.

“I take it you were not critically injured, as the scent of your blood suggested,” The man spoke, looking at the bandage wrapping around Felix’ palm. He could only reply with a cheeky “Well it worked, didn’t it? You came back,”. The comment made Chan’s features soften into something fond, not quite a smile but also not the stricken look of panic. With a sigh, Felix pushed himself up.

“You came back…. for me. Don’t deny it,” he said in a small voice, laying his uninjured hand to rest on his companion’s chest, atop his heartbeat. A few tense moments of silence lapsed by before he softly demanded Chan to tell him just exactly what he meant when he said that Felix didn’t truly lead the pack. He had to make sure he was reading all the clues right.

A warm hand on his cheek. Another on the dip of his waist. A hot breath ghosting over his lips as the answer he already knew was given to him. “The true leader of the pack is the Alpha. Me, if you will. But my mate would enjoy the same status, a true equal. My only regret, dear sweet Felix, is not showing you off as my mate?” The sentence ending on a question, just as much vulnerability and fear as he had felt earlier. He connected their lips and pulled Chan backwards until his knees buckled against the bed. Suddenly he did not feel fear anymore.

\---

“You know, I did leave an awful lot of valuables behind just to run at your smell,”

“Worried for the stock?” A slow hum.

Felix smashed his elbow into the wall. A harsh yelp resounded from the other side. “Jisung! Go fetch the carriage Chan left with, would you? Oh, and take Minho with you, I’m sure he would love to go for a ride again,”. A few moments later, they watched a wolf speed off into the distance, with a young man clutching at his fur for dear life.

“Now, Channie dear, there are two ways to go about this. We could take it slow, we have something near eternity together,” a soft hum, “Or, we could mate right here, right now, since mister eavesdrop has been sent out on a mission,” another soft hum, perhaps slightly more negative than the previous.

“I literally was there for your birth, you should be disgusted by me, not ready to jump my bones at a moment’s notice,” was the grumbling protest. Felix kissed the pout away, and then laid another on his lover’s lips for good measure. Assured him that he didn’t feel disgusted. Softly whispered that he had always had a thing for older men, just to get a laugh out of him.

A few hours later, with high moans floating through the night air, Chan didn’t hesitate anymore when Felix offered him his neck.

Yeah, maybe they were going a bit quick. Perhaps they had never officially courted. But deep down, from the second he met those striking yellow eyes on his first night here, Felix knew he was finally home.

He finally felt alive.

**Author's Note:**

> I blame Catherine for giving me enough confidence to post it. See y'all in hell?  
> Also the song Felix sings is "Alive" by Omnia, I grew up listening to this song and it fits the mysterious magical foresty vibe pretty well, me thinks.


End file.
